There are so many spaces to get lost in. I often get lost in them.

Summer Break Bucket List

Just saying it like that makes me feel ten years old, creates this amazing sense of excitement for the myriad of possibilities. In an effort to not let the time pass too quickly without having a bit of fun, my son and I have compiled a Summer Break 2017 Bucket List. We did this once before, a much shorter one, for spring break earlier in the year. It was amazing!

At home DIY science experiments – we’re making some slime and we’re making some chemical reactions

Listen to new songs and create a summer break playlist on Spotify (thus far)

Agnostic Front – Gotta Go

The Vandals – Come Out Fighting

Jake Bugg – The Love We’re Hoping For

Jake Bugg – What Doesn’t Kill You

Mischief Brew – Thanks, Bastards!

Practice riding 2 wheel bike

Practice and learn how to swim (hopefully I can arrange lessons at the college for him)

Make a dessert together – We made pudding today, but I’m thinking cookies soon

Go geocaching around the city

Go to a Loons baseball game

Tridge/Dow Gardens – (indefinitely postponed due to flooding)

Build an EPIC blanket fort and play games/read Percy Jackson

Do summer reading program at library

Go to Lansing for breakfast at the greatest breakfast place ever: The Golden Harvest (I cannot wait to share this amazing place with the person I love the most!)

Go to the airport and watch the planes land with snacks/picnic

Take a trip to Grand Haven and visit friends and the beach

Make a fun T-shirt, like glow in the dark

Make a bottle rocket because rockets are awesome

Have an epic Nerf gun battle – which we did and was a blast!

Coffee shop for games and treats (this is always a great way to get out of the house)

Thrilling Thursday for fun, free activities down town

Play Kinect Sports together – (I got demolished in boxing yesterday)

Make a dinner together that is not pizza

Movie and popcorn camp out on the floor

Go to the splash pad (indefinitely postponed due to the massive flooding in the city)

Volunteer at the Humane Society (Smalls is reading to the pups and he loves it!)

Go to the Soda Shoppe at the drugstore (a huge success for an old school chocolate shake)

This is the list we compiled with a little help from our online community. There are so many ways to spend time with a child or your family, and this, for me, is a great way to make sure I don’t allow us to waste our time, because it is so easy to just say, ‘oh, lets do that tomorrow. We have time.’ Time doesn’t really work that way. Also, there’s just something so damn fulfilling about crossing stuff off of a list.

Some days, Smalls and I chill and watch YouTube music videos together. It’s a way for me to relate to him and share some of the music that means a lot to me. Another thing we’ve been doing for the last few years is reading series books together. Well, I should say I’ve been reading and he listens. I read all of the Harry Potter books aloud, with accents, for two and a half years. After we finished, we started on Percy Jackson, and I feel like this tradition is something that we will always have together, memories that will be with us all of life. I guess what I mean to say is that a bucket list isn’t the only way to make sure we have fun, but it certainly does have a way of pushing us out of our comfort zone (which is important), and exposing us to things we may not even know we like. I’ve never geocached, don’t know how to do it, but I know there’s an app to download, and I know it will be an adventure.

Here’s to summer break and adventures, and having the amazing opportunity to spend it with my son.